A Proud Judaism is the Response to Islamophobia
As Jews we must condemn attacks like those we saw at the San Diego Islamic Center the other day in the strongest terms. I certainly condemn them as an affront to God, Jewish values, and our social compact as Americans.
Furthermore, we honor the heroic sacrifice of the guard, Amin Abdullah, whose brave actions saved lives. As a community also reliant on armed guards, we cannot demonstrate our gratitude to those who protect us enough.
When such attacks are directed at Muslims, the concerns are more acute. While incidents of antisemitism in recent years have spiraled to alarmingly unprecedented levels, making up the majority of hate-based attacks in the United States, we must also acknowledge a tragic link between anti-Muslim and antisemitic attacks that call Jews to action.
Why? Because both groups are more “ethno-religions” than what are considered “normal” in American culture. Both groups are far more prone to be “the other,” even given the long history of acceptance for Jews in America historically; this is painfully no longer the case for us today. Additionally, there is a “pox on both your houses” when it comes to Muslims and Jews in the warped minds of those motivated by hate.
What should we then do? We must call out and condemn such attacks and look for appropriate ways in which we can maintain and strengthen relations with our local Muslim and Arab communities.
But most of all, and I hope not counter-intuitively, we must continue to advocate for laws bolstering consequences for antisemitic actions, for protections for synagogues and Jewish organizations, and insofar as it is helpful, more education about the dangerous absurdity of antisemitism. I am convinced such advocacy for the Jewish community, so desperately needed, will also provide benefits to our Muslim neighbors and their communities and institutions.
Finally, we must not let ourselves and our relationship to our Muslim and Arab neighbors be defined by a narrative put upon us from outside. A narrative that pits us against each other as ancient rivals. That dismisses how our faiths have much in common (ritual obligations, text study and interpretation, the blending of culture and religion, etc.), our two communities’ long history of coexistence, and that, at the end of the day, we see ourselves as siblings, Isaac and Ishmael, the sons of Abraham.
A coda: we Jews are experts at holding multiple truths in mind at once. Our love for Israel, our fight against Islamist fanaticism, against antisemitism both at home and abroad, and our pride in our beautiful and unique heritage are all true at the same time as we condemn hate-based violence and islamophobia.
In dark times such as these, we must truly be a light to the nations and use our light to dispel ignorance and hate.
